Perfect weekend for Niagara JUEL
The Niagara JUEL girls basketball team was perfect in exhibition play last weekend.
“We had a really good weekend, a great team effort and we went 3-0,” Niagara head coach Si Khounviseth said. “We are just starting to build our team identity which is defence first and I thought today’s (last Sunday’s) game was an indication of how we want to defend. We held all three teams to under 50 points and today’s team we held to 31 points. We will hope to continue to build on that.”
Niagara is far from a finished product.
“There is lots of work to do on both ends but we are quite pleased with our start and that team first identity is what we are going after. We want to be the best defensive team no matter what,” he said.
Niagara opened the tournament with a 51-46 victory over the Durham City Chameleons.
Durham City built quarter leads of 12-11, 24-19 and 38-27 before Niagara rallied for the victory by outscoring its opponent 24-8 in the final quarter.
Top scorers for Niagara were: Emma Vendittelli (A.N. Myer) with 14; Alena Tepsic (Saltfleet) with 12; Shorleigh Burrows (Eden) with eight; Grace MacDonald (St. John Henry Newman) with seven; and, Annika Rigby (Eden) and Alyah Pereira (Westdale) with four.
Niagara defeated St. Lawrence 52-47 in its second game.Leading scorers were Vendittelli (12), Lauren Smith (St. Jean de Brébeuf) with 12 and Burrows with 10.
Niagara concluded the tournament with a 49-31 triumph over the Tri-County Soldiers. It recorded the win by building quarter leads of 12-8, 25-19 and 40-27.
Top performers for Niagara were: Vendittelli with 17 points; Smith with 10 points; Jessica Sager (St. John Henry Newman) with six points and five rebounds; and, Ava Froese (Smithville Christian) with four points and five rebounds.
Other members of the team are: Brianna Davis from Blessed Trinity; Anna Deliyannis from Eden; Keira Teske from Governor Simcoe; Amelia Siolkowsky from E.L. Crossley; and, Hannah Braye from Westlane.
